Systems and methods herein generally relate to machines such as printer and/or copier devices and, more particularly, to methods to determine toner usage in such machines.
In an image forming apparatus, toner usage may be determined by calculating area coverage, using a set number of images, and predicting the image throughput, while taking into account the image size. Such techniques usually need to know the size of the images in order to calculate the area coverage. However, if the instantaneous rate of toner usage is greater than the maximum replenishment rate, then the image forming apparatus would have to take some action in order to prevent running out of toner; otherwise, the image would eventually become too light and further on could damage the printer.